


Photo Album

by ArwenKenobi



Series: Watson's Woes July Writing Prompts 2013 [8]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-08
Updated: 2013-07-08
Packaged: 2017-12-18 03:56:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/875344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArwenKenobi/pseuds/ArwenKenobi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sherlock is flipping through a photo album when John gets back from Tesco's.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Photo Album

Sherlock is flipping through a photo album when John gets back from Tesco's. John isn't even aware that he had photo albums in his possession anymore. He may not be the best with computers but he does know how to store photographs on his computer and flip through them there. "What have you got there?" He opens the fridge, shoves the camel spider carcases out of the way, and puts the groceries away. At least Sherlock had learned to put things in plastic bags.

"Photo album," Sherlock reports. "Yours."

John shakes his head. He manages to get the biscuits on the top shelf with little incident. "I don't keep photo albums." 

"No, but your friend Major Elliott did."

Right! John remembers Cam Elliott. She was stationed in with him on his second tour. She was an artillery officer but most of the time he saw her around base with a camera. She's gone in for photography before she'd decided to enlist and here she was always there with a camera to capture any happy, non gunfire, filled moment between her and her company. He hasn't spoken with her in months. He really must send her an email at some point. 

When Cam had been rotated out she'd made a photo album for everyone and had taken the effort to post them out. It must have suffered the fate of most of his army life - shoved in a box where he had refused to look after he'd been invalided home. Since meeting Sherlock, he hasn't had much time to reminisce about the old life. He feels bad. Cam had put a lot of work into those albums.

He sits next to Sherlock as he stops at a photo of Bill Murray appearing to try to kick his way through the visor of a very old looking motorbike. "That's Bill's," John explains. "He brought that solider and bike with him on every tour. Cam liked to use it a lot in her shots." He flips through some more shots of GI Joe, John's pretty sure that it's not a GI Joe but that's what Bill had always called him, riding along a tent. On a tank. A shot of a camel spider approaching poor Joe makes Sherlock's hand still on the page. "Don't worry," John laughs. "He lived."

"Camel spiders are horrifying." 

"Then why do we have a fridge full of them?"

Sherlock has moved on and stops again at a photo of a silhouetted figured appearing to balance the setting sun on the edge of his shoe. "You?" Sherlock asks. 

John has to think about it. "It might be," he decides eventually. "The hair looks like Bill though. And the night that photo was taken, if I remember correctly, was a night that Charlie had said he wanted to play football with the sun." As if it hadn't been hot enough.

"I haven't seen a picture of you yet." Sherlock looks at him, accusing. John blushes and says that he probably has. "I looked different then - some of these pictures are quite old." Sherlock mutters about how it was utterly impossible for him to fail to recognize John anywhere. He is triumphant when he flips through to the beginning and finds no pictures of John. We he eventually does find one it's one that makes Sherlock pause again. He's smiling, in his fatigues, and the way Cam shot it make it look like he's about a hundred metres tall. 

"You look happy," Sherlock observes quietly. His fingers caress the photograph's face. 

John lays his hand across Sherlock's. "I was," he agrees. It was a good life. He loved what he did, even if there were camel spiders and insurgents opening fire at him and people dying around him that he could not save. Four of the people that Sherlock has flipped past are dead. This was why Cam had gone to such trouble after all. To make everything look nice and happy in retrospect even when it was hard to think that way. "But, I'm happy now too."

Sherlock can't leave that alone "Happier?" he hopes.

"Definitely." 

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt 8: Forced perspective: Either use the concept in your story, or find an image that uses this technique and use it as the basis for the story.
> 
> Pictures that inspired this work:
> 
> 1) [Motobike forced perspective shot](http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/02/26/aa/0f/forced-perspective-shot.jpg)
> 
> 2) [Man with sun on his shoe](http://imggot.com/single/267812)
> 
> 3) [Soldier](http://www.flickr.com/photos/andy-germany/1269915582/in/photolist-2WdDEf-4A6McH-4HpQnt-5AAaKt-5ScyVB-6rTRhP-6rTRBt-6rTRFt-6rTSa2-6rTSdP-6rXZGA-6rY15E-6rY1i1-6tV4Tk-6yx6YS-7ayVkR-7ayVJg-7ayVRz-7aCJzj-7aCJCq-7aCJQC-7aCJYy-7muy9q-dbpE6j-eYW2as-aPoNGK-bqTMkN-9Q36F1-a9zVP6-bpD4VR-dtqodc-e6y4Nk-azzr8F-efDuaH-8yYFSu-bCrdbP-aYd1HK-9PCX82-bgWZAt-9UdPa9-cPdTps-9fGb9m-9YSeEy-dsKxD1-8ybCwu-bAewza-8sJaDx-8EXXxr-9uwbFe-9uwbBe-f2N5AM/lightbox/)


End file.
